By Grace of a Pebble Thrown
by WizardOfSummer
Summary: A novelization of Battle Moon Wars. Time has passed and wounds have faded; life has finally moved on for the inhabitants of Misaki and Fuyuki City. But the ashes of past conflict have been disturbed, a nightmare begins for the soldiers of a forgotten war.
1. Under the Morning Sun's Light

**By the Grace of a Pebble Thrown**

A Novelization of Battle Moon Wars

Chapter 1 – Under the Morning Sun's Light

It was early morning and the various paper pushers, overworked researchers, and hung-over agents of Shin'i were mostly busy drinking the mildly awful coffee from the communal break room to fend off their tiredness. In the briefing room on the second floor, however, a college student and a teenager were watching as a tortoise-shell colored cat named Mike cleaned himself expertly with his tongue.

Haruna yawned still feeling slightly groggy. Mike's call for both her and Takumi to come into headquarters had woken her up from the middle of the only nightmare-free sleep she had managed in a week, having just returned from hunting down a particularly powerful spirit murdering humans in Tokyo. Takumi, however, Haruna noted grouchily, looked completely awake. His unkempt green hair was busy dripping water slowly onto his leather jacket; obviously Mike's call had caught him in the midst of his customary post-training shower.

At least he had managed a shower and what looked like a change into a decent set of clean clothes, Haruna thought, although to be honest it was hard to tell with his unerring fondness for creepily similar brown slacks and light grey sweaters. Meanwhile, she had had to make do with her old school uniform from the Asagami Private Girl's Academy which while clean did nothing to wash away the feeling of sweat and grime from the last mission. Sighing, Haruna pulled out a chair and sat down not bothered about smoothing out her skirt; Mike was a cat and Takumi was like her big brother, they wouldn't care if she didn't act like the successor of a prestigious, supernatural family name like she had to in front of her parents.

While Haruna began the futile process of suppressing rogue tufts of pink hair, Takumi, tired of tapping his foot louder and louder against the floor in an effort to call his boss's attention back to the matter at hand, finally spoke up. "An emergency, sir?"

Mike stopped mid-stroke cutting Takumi a look that promised cleaning duty after long and disgusting cleaning duty in the process and subsequently sat up right settling into a position reminiscent of an Egyptian guardian sphinx.

"That's right. Surely you've heard about Misaki City?" he asked the two of them in a voice much too deep and human for a non-supernatural cat to have.

There was a second's silence before Haruna tentatively began to speak. "If I remember right, a vampire princess, a curry-obsessed church solider and other strong people gathered there and ended up in a last-man standing battle royale a year ago. This created stagnation, destroying the balance of the land and allowed evil spirits to rise up. They were expelled with the town guardian's help, but not before the city had suffered immensely." She finished, yawning again and leaning backwards in her seat.

Takumi blinked unable to believe such a far-fetched situation had happened without as much as a briefing about it. "What's that?"

Mike nodded, taking the chance to lick a soot-colored paw with which he began to use to clean his ears and face. "That's pretty much correct." Haruna turned back to look at Takumi and grinned proudly.

"How could that be right?" Takumi scoffed looking back at Haruna.

Haruna scowled letting some of tired frustration into her voice. "It's true! I heard it directly from Misaki's guardian!" Mike just looked on uncaring as his two charges argued.

"One of your friends?" Takumi asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, her name's Akira Tohno." Haruna replied pointing at her school uniform. "This uniform is from the private academy we went to together; plus, both of us were in the archery club together."

"I guess that makes sense then. You _do_ have a tendency to know all the right people." Takumi conceded shrugging, looking away from Haruna to focus on Mike who began to speak again on cue. Haruna however continued to glance at Takumi while Mike spoke, unsure how to take his allusion to her family's' various political connections.

"As Haruna said, Misaki City is in an unstable region. That area was made so incredibly stagnant that it's no wonder that so many evil spirits sprung up. But when the town guardian expelled them, the power unleashed by the guardian and the souls she watches over only managed to suppress the stagnation present in the city." Mike stopped to scratch his ear a few times before continuing, "Two days ago, our agents in Misaki sent out a distress call reporting that the new balance the guardian created has deteriorated."

"What signs are there?" Takumi inquired.

"Apparently, the stagnation is already beginning to spread again and at a rate unprecedented in such cases," Mike answered showing his evident disbelief by not pausing in his intensive cleaning efforts.

Haruna disregarded her boss's cynical outlook on the situation, more concerned with the safety with her old friend. "What makes them think that?" She asked.

"This hasn't been made public by the police yet," he replied sitting back up and fixing the two in his sight, "but there have been a number of unexplained murders spread over a two mile radius." Takumi and Haruna grimaced; both knew that if the murders were so spread out it could only mean the stagnation was terrible enough to give physical form to malevolent spirits.

"The police believe it's the work of a serial killer," Mike continued his voice softer now, "but it could also be attributed to the poisonous effects of the stagnation and the creatures it would give birth to."

His two agents stood silently, unmoving, and Mike wondered once again whether it was a mistake sending such young agents, regardless of their amazing personal accomplishments, into the field.

Takumi cleared his throat and began to speak again. "Did the distress call say anything else?"

"Yes, one more thing." Mike said nervously; he sat up and began to pace nervously in a tight circle.

Haruna glanced meaningfully at Takumi who nodded in agreement. Whatever it was Mike was concerned about was the true reason Shin'i was interested in Misaki City; Shin'i would never send agents into guardian's territory without their express permission unless under extremely dire circumstances.

Takumi pressed onwards. "What is it, sir?"

Mike slowed his restless pacing but didn't stop as he began to talk. "We don't have enough information to back this up. But the call stated that Misaki City seems to be becoming "hallowed ground."

"An entire town becoming hallowed ground…"Haruna breathed out, sharing looks of horrified disbelief with Takumi. Hallowed ground was a blessing for Youkai, humans who possessed supernatural powers, as it released higher than normal amounts of mana as well barred evil spirits from inhabiting the area it covered. However, the process of creating hallowed ground required sacrifice, or in a more precise sense the burial of bodies, hundreds of human corpses.

Mike nodded, his tail drooping. "Yes, I can't believe it either. In all honesty, I believe and hope our agents to be mistaken."

"Have you seen anything like this happen before?" Takumi asked, still slightly shaken by the idea of such a development, unconsciously clenching his right hand into a near fist as if to grasp a sword hilt.

"Indeed, a few times over the centuries. However, those incidents took much longer to develop. Regardless, the rapid growth of Misaki City's stagnation and these series of murders must be related."

Haruna and Takumi nodded. "If so," Haruna mused, "they really _are_ in trouble."

Mike stopped his pacing and summoned all his conviction into his vocal cords as he faced them. "Right. Unfortunately, the local government won't long be able to cover up and control the situation. Thus, your mission is to find the town guardian, Akira Tohno, and confirm these reports with her help. If the reports turn out to be true, then you must find whatever is disturbing the balance of the ground in the region and destroy it before its too late."

Haruna and Takumi confirmed their mission with a simple "roger" then turned to leave; but before they could make it to the door, Mike called out.

"Takumi, Megami told me to tell you that he has the prototype of the sword you commissioned ready."

Takumi nodded, unable to hold back a smile at the thought of holding the next incarnation of Futsu-no-Mitama in his hands. "I'll go and collect it before I leave."

"Make sure you thank him, he's been pulling all nighters getting that thing ready for you." Mike reminded him.

"Of course, sir."

"And both of you," Mike shouted out before the two could finally take their leave, "make sure you come back safe. Shin'i can't afford to lose you. Good luck."

Takumi smiled and nodded while Haruna grinned and replied, "Of course. If I plan to be as respected as Kuu, I can't die anytime soon. We'll be back as soon as we can." With that said Haruna walked back in and gave Mike's fur a final good-bye ruffle before exiting through the doorway followed by Takumi who waved a reserved farewell.

Mike stared at the door, almost wishing he could call his students back for a second, before shifting into his favored position for cleaning his rump and deciding to later sacrifice that annoying bird outside the window to any gods and benevolent spirits for their safety.

"Of course not." He chuckled softly before pushing the briefing room's door closed with his telekinesis.

* * *

By late afternoon, Takumi and Haruna had made it to Misaki City by way of one of Shin'i's company cars driven, rather poorly, by Takumi. "All the sword training he did clearly left no time to learn to not continually drift all over the road," Haruna had thought as she gritted her teeth at the umpteenth close call.

In comparison, it proved to be a simple matter to rent out a simple two bed room in one of the dingier and cheapest hotels of the city as their temporary base of operations. Thankfully, after a brief inspection, it appeared that no vermin or insects made their homes in this room and all the bed sheets and covers were washed to acceptable cleanness. It definitely wasn't the best room the two had ever occupied but it definitely wasn't the worst.

The electric lights of the city had replaced that of the sun by the time Haruna and Takumi were beginning to prepare for their first preliminary sweep of city. Both clipped on one of Shin'i's patented EDS (Electronic Device Scrambler) devices in order to not accidently show up carrying lethal weaponry on CCTV cameras and cause problems with the local police. The two Youkai glanced at each other and quickly looked away; both remembering the humongous chewing out Mike had given them after letting a chase between the two of them and a possessed sledgehammer of all things be recorded by about half the cameras in Tokyo. Haruna rubbed her right shoulder while Takumi scratched the back of his head; the severity of their mistake had been drilled in to them permanently by Mike with the aid of pieces of telekinetically thrown furniture. It was also where their unfortunate moniker of 'Team Obvious' had come from; the office hands still used it behind their backs to this day.

While Takumi left the room to go retrieve his mysterious prototype sword from within a compartment in their car, Haruna pulled out the pieces of her modified P90 from her luggage and arranged them precisely in front of her. Assembling the submachine gun from its component parts was second nature to her now, and she let her fingers drift over the gun's component parts, the cold metal and plastic soothing away her worries and tension. Effortlessly, she slotted each piece into its appropriate place finishing by clipping in a fresh magazine. To the untrained eye, it looked unmodified, a simple unmodified FN P90, but an expert would note the thicker than normal stock and strange waved grip design; it was underneath this inexplicable mod that the blood and sweat of Shin'i's research department beat allowing a Youkai's power to shoot effortlessly out of muzzle along with a bullet.

After attaching a strap onto the submachine gun, she let it rest against her left hip as she pulled out her standard issue Spirit Dagger and placed it in the front pocket of her white button down shirt. Hearing keys in the lock, Haruna looked at the door and after a few seconds was graced with the first look at the 5th incarnation of Futsu-no-Mitama.

There were only four words which could encapsulate what she saw, which were 'unbelievably large' and 'obscenely bulky'. While the main body looked sleek, crafted from specially forged blue and white-gold coloured alloys with interspersed vents, the space right above the hilt, which itself looked to be made of metal piping, was a large piece of bare metal covered in screws and bolts. It only got worse as just below the metal slab was grafted a three-dimensional rhombus painted in the garish warning colours of black and yellow.

Takumi noticed Haruna's slack-jawed stare and smiled proudly, "it's a work of art, isn't it?"

"That's not quite how I would put it but it is impressive," Haruna squeaked out, trying hard not to shout out that it was the largest eyesore she had ever seen. "What happened to your old Futsu-no-Myitma?"

"Unfortunately to make this prototype work, the remnants of the original Futsu-no Mitama," Takumi said making sure to enunciate each syllable of the sword's name, "had to be extracted from my old sword making it useless."

Haruna nodded, "Are we ready then?"

Takumi looked around their sparse motel room for a second before nodding, "Yes, I think so. After you."

With that, Haruna and Takumi left their apartment, making sure to lock it behind them, to start their first patrol of Misaki City.


	2. A Visitor in the Night

Author's Notes: Its been a long time coming but here's the second chapter of By Grace of a Pebble Thrown. Third one should be out a _lot_ sooner.

Chapter 2- A Visitor in the Night

It was a minute to midnight and the streets of Misaki City were all deserted; the residents long since coming to an understanding that those who wandered the streets at the witching hour tended to become the newest additions to the front page the next morning. Only the sounds of cars moving swiftly along main roads and bridges remained to serve as a sign that Misaki City was still inhabited by the living. It was in this near soundless realm that Takumi and Haruna found themselves.

For the past few hours, they had been trying to triangulate a place in the city that contained higher stagnation than the rest. They had stuck to the sprawling system of back alleys and ruined buildings that made up the poorer section of Misaki City in order to avoid having their night vision erased by the street lights lining the main roads. Now, they found themselves having to force away thoughts of self-mutilation and murder as they walked closer to what felt to be the center of the stagnation in the city.

Most of the alleyway was covered in bags of rubbish, some of which had either burst open or been eaten through their insides strewn across the ground making footing treacherous. An awful stench grew as they pressed onward and with each step they took a sickening cracking accompanied as the rotting remains grew around them.

For a moment, Haruna wondered where all the rats and flies were; a decayed feast littered the ground but there was not so much as a skitter in the darkness. It wasn't long before her eyes were drawn to the floor as a sickeningly fleshy crunch came from under foot. Haruna paled as she removed her foot from what had once been the chest of a rat but was now home to hundreds of writhing maggots. As she looked up from the distressing sight, she noticed the same rhythmic writhing from deep inside the ruptured bags around her. Despite the ill feeling gripping her stomach, Haruna tried to peer deeper into the refuse; the writhing motion…didn't seem quite natural, thought Haruna, but before she could examine it in more detail, she noticed Takumi was getting ahead of her and ran forward to catch up.

Haruna shivered, casting nervous glances at the shadows her night vision did not illuminate and hefted her P90 not yet switching off the safety. "This place gives me the creeps."

Takumi frowned, similarly tightening his grip on his sword. "Definitely. The stagnation must have had time to corrupt the ground here heavily," he said as they reached the middle of the alley.

Haruna immediately felt like being sick; the stagnation was so heavy here, the natural poisonous effect it had on the body and mind was at least ten times stronger. It clawed at her soul; her eyes widened in panic as she felt it stroke her Power calling out to the sealed strength within. 'Don't look at Takumi, don't look at Takumi' Haruna repeated to herself forcing her eyes to glimpse the varied deaths of maggots instead, desperately fighting to keep control of her seal.

Takumi, a pinnacle of self-control, meanwhile found himself having to fight to keep a hold on to his dinner; noticing a side alley just ahead he kept moving allowing his sword to grind across the ground in his wake for Haruna to follow. Breaths swiftly became shallower as the two Youkai's lungs began to deteriorate and even minor movements were struggles to accomplish as the sheer weight of the stagnation bore down on their bodies.

Haruna turned to Takumi as the two of them finally pushed through the stagnation into a side alley, drenched in sweat but otherwise alright. "Well?"

Takumi glanced back at the blighted alley. "Since that alley was so incredibly tainted, it must be the origin. I'd hate to think that there was a more tainted area present in this city."

Haruna nodded. "Yeah, that alley definitely felt like was the most stagnant part of the city that we've encountered so far."

"There appears to be something awakening here." Takumi said eyes still focused back on alley looking for any physical manifestation of the taint. Looking up the alley's walls, he noticed a crow sitting calmly on a rusted fire escape railing calmly preening its feathers. Takumi lifted his weapon, keeping his eye on the strange crow; something was definitely wrong here.

It was the same instant that the crow turned and revealed its eyeless face to him that Takumi heard Haruna flip off the P90's safety and release a quick burst of fire.

"Hostiles, 12 o'clock!" She shouted as the power-filled bullets impacted into the almost comically over-sized head of a robot-like clay doll that had appeared at the entrance to the alley. The doll's head was blown off by the impact and the rest of its body crumbled into dust; the metal tomahawk it had been holding clanked and bounced off the ground once before another clay hand rose soundlessly out of ground and claimed it. Haruna swiftly shot it to pieces but just as the clay shards reached the ground ten more hands erupted from the earth swiftly joined by their cursed hollow bodies. Each head that rose from the ground held the same hollows in its face in a cruel mockery of eyes and a mouth. Haruna swore that there was some movement behind those hollows but nothing revealed itself in the light of the flash of her gun's muzzle.

Takumi, meanwhile, was trying to fend off the crow which kept swooping in to try to claw at his face but retreated before he could bring it low with his sword. Frustrated, Takumi accidently swung his sword too far allowing the crow the opportunity it needed to finish its offensive; realizing his mistake, Takumi dropped his sword; covering his face with his hands just before the tainted crow struck. His hands quickly became marked with bloody gashes from the flying fiend's claws.

Takumi winced. His hands were blocking his vision; the frenzied movements and sounds of the crow made it impossible to tell where his attacker's main body was. Desperately throwing his left hand blindly forward, he felt it close around the crow's torso. A simple squeeze was all it took to break the crow's ribs and spine, finally ending its undead existence. Throwing away the foul corpse, Takumi swung his body low and stretched out his hand to grasp his fallen sword. He effortlessly lifted the bulky weapon with a single hand before using his second to still its momentum.

Wincing, as his muscles rippled painfully against his cuts, Takumi turned his head to check on the status of his younger partner. He blinked in awe. Twinkling stars of metal were to be seen scattered among a sea of blackened clay that stretched all the way to the mouth of the alley; just on the edge of the terracotta holocaust was his partner leaning on a wall, gasping for breath.

Haruna smiled wanly as Takumi hurried over. "I'm not injured," she said shaking her head to stop Takumi from checking for wounds, "the stagnation just affects me more." Haruna sighed as she still saw his eyes worriedly scan her body from feet to hair. 'Just like a real big brother,' she thought smiling as she pushed herself away from the wall.

Not for the first time, Haruna found herself thanking her Youkai heritage, the Power she had used quickly returning and infusing her body with its old vigor. By the time she stood beside Takumi, the two Shin'I operatives felt ready for battle again.

"Obviously, our presence here caused the stagnation to spawn creatures to protect itself," Takumi mused, ever the thinker of the two, still gripping his sword fiercely just in case more enemies made themselves present.

Haruna shrugged, more interested in the process of spreading out her senses in order to touch the contaminated space of the larger alley beyond. Takumi waited keeping watch until she returned to herself.

"If that's true, then obviously that summoning cost it; the stagnation's almost completely gone from the alleyway and even the level of stagnation here is less." She said smiling broadly at Takumi; if stopping the stagnation was as simple as destroying the creatures it summoned, Haruna thought, then this mission was going to be over before it even started.

Takumi returned Haruna's smile with one of his own reading her thoughts with the ease of long-time partner. "Unfortunately, it's not going to be that easy."

"And why not?" Haruna huffed.

"While causing the stagnation to react and summon creatures will weaken it; it's only temporary solution…"

"Because whatever's causing this, will still be creating more stagnation which will cause even more areas like this to pop up." Haruna finished. "God, why aren't our jobs ever simple?"

"Probably because otherwise we'd get bored," answered Takumi lightheartedly and the two shared a smile.

However, their comradely reverie shattered as a loud crash emanated from the once-stagnant alley. Quickly, the two grasped their weapons and with a nod, Takumi rushed into the alley while Haruna took cover at the corner so she could give covering fire. But as she peered round the corner, her eyes met Takumi's who was starting to kneel down next to a pile of rubbish further into the alley; he gave her the signal to move up. Approaching cautiously, Haruna spotted what had made Takumi pause. In the center of the rubbish, face down, was a man.

Easily six foot, he was thankfully wearing clothes, the full ensemble of a teenager's t-shirt jeans, socks and trainers, although Haruna couldn't make out what color they were in the darkness of the alleyway. But both Takumi and Haruna knew this was no reason to throw caution to the wind, too many spirits took on disguises to get the jump on unsuspecting or naïve operatives.

Haruna kept the muzzle pointed at the man's head as Takumi placed his sword under the man's body flipping the man and pulling his sword back to strike in an effortless motion. Haruna's finger tightened on the trigger, even the slightest twitch would send a Power-filled bullet into the stranger's head. However, no provocation to that action came; lying at their feet was a human being, his face covered by a piece of paper that had managed to remain stuck to his face despite the forceful flip.

Haruna chuckled as the human blew the offending paper off his face as he breathed out revealing closed eyes behind a pair of thick glasses held together by thin wire. Both Youkai waited for any kind of response but the human seemed intent on slumber.

Takumi frowned; the sudden appearance of this human did nothing more than complicate matters but… "Haruna."

"What is it?"

"You know the location of the guardian of Misaki right?"Takumi asked.

"Yeah, you want me to report what we've found to Akiha and bring this guy somewhere safe right?" Haruna replied as she braced her arms under the sleeping human.

"Exactly, I'll continue patrolling the city and see what effect our weakening of this area's stagnation had on the rest of the city." Takumi couldn't help but smile a little as Haruna let out a groan as she lifted the dead weight; despite her complaining, he knew that the sleeper's weight was as nothing to her just as Futsu-no-Mitama was to him.

Haruna nodded, shifting her charge slightly for balance. "Should we meet up again at the hotel room?"

Takumi shook his head, "Give me the location of the guardian and I'll meet you there."

As she began to draw delicately on her Power, Haruna gave Takumi the address and some simple directions. As Takumi left, Haruna's Power finally began to flow freely out of her body; the plastic bags rustled as the putrid air stirred in its wake. Soon, Haruna's feet were no longer burdened with having to walk on earth. Even if her Power drew the envy of others and caused no end of problems, she would never give it up because of the gift it gave her: flight. She grinned freely as she accelerated towards the sky while the human cradled in her arms gave no sign of worry besides shifting imperceptibly away from the sudden caress of night air.

Meanwhile, the maggots and worms hidden in the refuse turned their eyeless heads to watch the retreating figure disappear into the moon-lit sky.


End file.
